From Zanarkand
by akagisenpai
Summary: Reidas, a childhood friend of Tidus, survives the attack of Sin in Dream Zanarkand. Strive to look for his missing friend, Reidas travels to Spira to conduct his search, at the same time develops a relationship with Rikku. However, Reidas soon realizes...


"Listen to my story."

Tidus always said that when we reflect on something in the past. After each of his blitzball victories we would just stand on the highest point of Zanarkand watching the lit up buildings flashing like a gigantic Christmas tree. Auron would then show up, with his huge gigantic blade that gives me the creeps sometimes. The three of us will then hold up bottles of sodas as we drank and comment on Tidus' victory.

"Zanarkand never does sleep." I start, taking a drink from the glass bottle within my hand. "This place is like a dreamworld. A paradise."

"Of course. Anything you want is here. Food, entertainment, and best of all, blitzball." Tidus giggles. "And of course, the ace of the Zanarkand Abes owns all."

"Yes Tidus, you can stop showing off your victory now." I hissed, picking up my Katana from behind. "Auron, you want to spar for a bit?"

"Hm?" Auron asks, sitting down on one of the benches with his large blade set aside. "You'll lose, kid."

"Haha, you think so? I learned something new." I said with confidence, drawing out my Katana. "Your breaks aren't going to affect me this time."

"So be it." Auron says, taking his arm out of that red crimson jacket of his. "I'll take you on."

Auron is surely a mysterious person of all times, but I truly do envy his strength. Ten years ago he showed up claiming to know Tidus' dad, Jecht. That time Tidus and I were running away from a bunch of mobs chasing us down the streets. Auron was the one who showed up and protected us.

"Ready?" I asked. I drew out my Katana, running straight towards Auron with in my attacking stance. Tidus watched with a blitzball swinging in his hand, and the gust behind me blew as my force pushes straight out of my body. First of all, I cast haste on myself, increasing my actions directly. Auron's blade missed me by an inch as I take a stab from behind.

"No use." Auron says, as he dodges the stab and charges up for one of his skills. "Magic isn't going to do you much good. Power break!"

"Oh no you don't." I said, dodging his pulsing red attack again. "Protect!"

A white shield glows around me, reducing any physical attack damage by a certain amount. "Now let's see how you handle this."

"Hmph. You've gotten better, kid." Auron says. "Armor break!"

"What the?" I start, then the blade struck me, shattering the shield immediately. My Katana flies out of hand, driving deep into the ground while I lay on the cement, soundly beaten. Auron sets his blade down, and pushes his shades up a bit.

"Woah man, you alright?" Tidus ask. "Man, to challenge the old man like that, you seriously have some nerve."

"Ah, so much for learning white magic." I stood back up with Tidus, grabbing my drink once again. "So Tidus, when's your next game?"

"Tomorrow. We're against the Zanarks United; I heard they recruited some pretty good players this season."

"The opening game of Jecht Memorial Cup. Named after your dad." I said. Auron gives me small stare, and I starred back. "Show him who's talking."

"Of course. Say, do you have to work tomorrow?"  
"I'm on early shift. I'll for sure make your game." I said, passing my stare on to Auron once again. "Auron, do you think I improved?"

"Work on your stance a bit. Relying on magic won't do you much help when you use a Katana." Auron says. "Your speed improved though. I see potential within you, Reidas."  
"Thanks a lot, Auron." I'm so not telling him I was casting Haste before I attacked. "Hey, I'll be off now. Good luck in tomorrow's game okay?"

Tidus raises his hand as a sign to say bye as I did the winning sign for blitzball to wish him luck. I pluck my Katana out of the ground and went to the fire exits off the building. Zanarkand's lights and noise still covered my senses at midnight. Must be wondering, what do I do for a living in Zanarkand? Ever since my parents past away, I've been working as a security officer to protect monsters from entering the city. All my life I've been training myself to avenge my parents. From that day on, I can still remember those bandits killing my parents ten years ago. Living in despair, Tidus' parents soon left him too. The both of us were stranded on the street, until Auron found us. Our lives were in daylight once again.

…

"That's the last of it. I'll be off now." I said, throwing the boxes a side and waving to my coworkers. Security sure is boring in Zanarkand since there isn't much crime going on around here. There's a reason why I called this place paradise in the first place. Anyhow, Tidus' game starts in two hours. There should be enough time to head home first and to the stadium.

Tidus and I live in the same area by the docks. Side by side our boathouses were placed, and oftentimes we would have dinner together. Although Zanarkand is like a heavenly place to live in, blitzball fans are a bit crazy and things can get a bit out of hand. Last night was okay, but there were a few drunkards roaming around and causing a mess in the entrance. Tonight's the opening game of Uncle Jecht's memorial cup; I have a feeling something big is going to happen. Another excuse to try out my new weapon; the gunsword. Entering my house, I took my uniform and set it aside, putting my katana by the bed as well. I went to my desk and picked up this piece of steel that I had just finished yesterday night. I hybrid cross between a longsword and a rifle, this baby can take on both range and melee. Okay, time to run.

The gunsword sure is heavy strapped behind my back. In my casual clothes, I took a seat in one of the top rows where I can see the water sphere clearly on the screen. That's the life of security guards; they're poor. As the water sphere fills up with water, I can see members of the Zanark United and Zanarkand Abes approaching the center of the sphere. As the blitzball launch up to the middle of the sphere, players went straight up for the ball. Tidus dives immediately for the ball, with three other people trying to tackle his butt off. I admit he's good looking, but he's always attracting the wrong kind of people.

"Wow, he's so cool!" a bunch of ladies shout. Trying to draw my eyes into what's happening, Tidus just smashed one of the players out of the sphere pool. Cheap tactics. The next thing I see is one ball going straight at the Zanarkand Abe's goal. That's what you get for playing around, Tidus.

After a while of tackling, the game stays at 1-0 while the two teams battle out to attempt another goal. One of the Zanarkand Abes' members smashed the blitzball all the way up in the sky, with Tidus rising up to the top, eventually out of the sphere pool. Everybody in the stadium was taking note of what's going on. In the extreme heights of the stadium, Tidus was doing his little special show off move, Blitz Ace, that's what he called it. Just as he was about to smash the ball straight in the goal…

"Fire!" someone calls, and about six or seven pounded straight at the stadium. A huge chaos broke out as the sphere pool pushes since the magnetic field couldn't hold up the water in between the space. Quickly I went straight toward the top of the stadium, knowing a huge tsunami creeping on to Zanarkand with this big whale looking creature following. What is going on?

"Tidus!" I call, and obviously he will not hear it since he's hanging off some kind of ledge. "Hold on Tidus!"

Before I can even get to Tidus, he fell off and he was nowhere in sight already. Damn, what is going on here? I quickly head to the exit of the stadium, trying to look for Auron at the place we use to gather. Auron's not there. I need to find them.

Suddenly, scale like figures dropped from the skies. Everyone wondered what they were, and suddenly al the scales popped open and some kind of winged creatures crawl all over the place. I unbuckled my gunsword and aimed.

"Whatever the heck you guys are, get out of Zanarkand now!" I yell, and started firing at each these monsters. "Die, you mutants!"

Each round I fire rapidly kills these creatures, and more and more of them seem to move in. Like a dark plague, they started roaming on all the streets of Zanarkand. I start to move away from these creatures as I reload the ammunition within my gunsword. The police force battled off the creatures with their rifles as well, but there were just too many of these scale stuff. I quickly run off on to the highroad and run along with the crowd. Total Chaos. I see people being trampled under feet as everyone bled to their death. I keep running as the scales fly all over the place, and eventually the highway breaks off. I'm stranded.

Suddenly, on the far away highway, a huge explosion occurs. It must be an oil tanker of some sort, and the highway collapses. A huge hole opens up in the sky with stuff all being sucked in. What exactly is going on here, what's that whale look alike monster over there?

The scales were closing up on me. I have to do something or else I'm just going to end up getting squished like everyone else. "Haste!" I called, casting the spell around me, increasing my speed immediately. One by one I hack my way through these scales with my gunsword, taking on every single one that's in my way. This is crazy, I can't last long like this.

I made it back. I made it back to my house, with nearly four piercing wounds on my chest. I can see the tsunami sweeping closer to me, and eventually it will sweep the houses too. I held on to my gunsword. The blood flowed straight down my chest, creating a mini pool on my living room floor. That is going to take some effort to clean up, but who cares, I'm about to be swept away by a huge Tsunami. No point of worrying anymore. Wherever you are Tidus, I hope you're safe. I can't last anymore. At that moment, the Tsunami swept the boathouses, and I was buried along with it.


End file.
